In 2016 was the first time that mobile internet usage surpassed that of desktops. Since then, it gradually became a normal thing. Where-ever you’d go in public; you’ll find people looking at their phone screens. Be it entertainment, shopping, education, and whatever you can think of, people are using mobile phones to search their queries on the internet. If you’re an E-Commerce entity, you need to know that your target market is searching you on internet through their mobile phones. They are visiting your website through mobile phones. Hence, if your website is not optimized for mobile phones, you are already far behind.
It is no more an option. Having a mobile friendly website is very important in the current E-Commerce scenario. Since over half the global web traffic comes from mobile devices, it is likely that a great chunk of your website’s traffic is mobile users. In order to ensure that they engage well with your website, it is important to give them a great user experience. Hence, it is important to maintain a mobile friendly website.
Then there is another very important reason why mobile-friendly website development is important. If your website won’t work well on mobile phones, Google will penalize you. This means lower ranking and lesser visibility. Hence, it is important to make your website mobile friendly.
But before beginning with how to do that, you need to know whether or not your website is mobile-friendly. For this, there are many free tools that you can use. It is best advised to use Google Console if you are optimizing for Google.
Ways to Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
➠ Have a responsive web design
Having a responsive web design is essential to make a website mobile friendly. RWD ensures that a website would automatically re-adjust its elements for optimal view on the device it is being accessed through. Hence, if you are using a website through mobile phone, RWD will re-adjust the display elements in a way that you get the best view on your small screen. You can make your web design responsive in the following ways:
- Use Meta tags in your HTML document
- Add media queries to your layout
- Images and embedded videos also need to be responsive
- Your typography should be easy to read in mobile devices
These are some basic ways you can make your web design responsive. However, this requires certain website development skills. So, it is best advised to get Web Services.
➠ Website speed should be a priority
According to Google SOASTA Research 2017, this is how website loading time affects the bounce rate:
1s to 3s the probability of bounce increases 32%
1s to 5s the probability of bounce increases 90%
1s to 6s the probability of bounce increases 106%
1s to 10s the probability of bounce increases 123%
So, this tells that having a fast loading website is important to retain your visitors.
You can make your website load faster in the following ways:
- Use Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) plugin for your WordPress website
- Compress your image file sizes and CSS
- Upgrade your web hosting
With these steps, you can make your website load faster.
➠ Don’t use Flash
Most mobile phones do not support Flash. So, if your website still uses Flash, it won’t be able to display properly on mobile phones. Therefore, it is important to ditch Flash.
Flash is no obsolete. Even it is no more very relevant for desktops. Hence, you should rather switch to compatible technology like HTML.
And in case you want to do something complicated, it is better to develop an app instead.
➠ Keep a simple web design
In order to keep a mobile-friendly website, it is better to keep a simple web design. Complicated web designs can get confusing and can make it hard for visitors to navigate the site on a small screen.
It is best advised to stick to a minimalistic web design. This makes it easier for people to find what they are looking for. And since there will be lesser elements to load, it will help make your website load faster.
➠ Use large buttons
Clicking on any button is easy when done with a mouse as you can precisely aim with the cursor. However, when you have to use your fingers or thumb to click a small button, it can get really difficult. And this can get really frustrating for smartphone users.
Hence, you should use large sized buttons on your website. Moreover, it is also important to be thoughtful while placing them. The button on your website should be large and clear.
➠ Font sizes should be large and standard
Text written in small font size can be hard to read on small screens of mobile phones. Therefore, if you want to make sure that mobile users have a great experience on your website, it is important to use large font sizes.
Moreover, it is best advised to go for standard fonts. You may use designer fonts to make your website look more appealing. However, mobile users won’t really appreciate having to download new fonts. In fact, many of them would straight up bounce back and look for some other website. Hence, standard fonts are more preferable.
Wrapping up
Having a mobile-friendly website is extremely important. This is so especially for E-Commerce. With the help of the points above, you can effectively optimize your website for mobile phones. However, for that, one would need to be through website development. So, if you are not a web-techie, it is best to get some top-shelf web services.
